Respect for all: Who benefits from tourism?

This activity was used with children in key stage 2, year 4.

Aim

• To promote understanding of interdependence and encourage reflection on the diverse impacts of tourism.

Activity objectives

• To develop an understanding of the effects of tourism on an area.
• To ask questions about who benefits and who loses out in the development of tourism.
• To become aware of the issues behind taking a holiday, an activity that many people take for granted.
• To learn that there are benefits and costs associated with any tourist-resort development and that these are not equally spread across all those involved.

This activity promotes multicultural understanding and relates to the following elements in the geography key stage 2 programme of study:

• geographical enquiry (1a, 1c, 1d);
• knowledge and understanding of places (3a-g).

Activity description

The children listed all the items that they and/or their families would require on a holiday on a Caribbean island. They itemised those bought in the UK prior to leaving and those they would buy in the destination country. The children worked out the total cost of these items and produced a chart showing the amount spent in each country. The children were asked to consider how much they thought should go to the host country and local workers.

The children took part in a role play about a range of people involved in the island's hotel business (eg tour company rep., waiter, local fisherman) and analysed the workloads of staff as well as their pay. Then they considered the whole cost of the holiday, how much was spent in the UK, how much was spent on the island and how much actually stayed in the island's economy. The children decided whether or not they thought that this was a fair distribution of the money; if they thought it wasn't fair, they put forward proposals to make it more equitable.

Commentary

This activity was challenging for both teacher and children. The teacher had to consider the issue of giving a balanced argument while ensuring that children were supported in exploring their own and their families' attitudes to the issues. The work was firmly based in developing knowledge, understanding and respect for a different culture. The questions relating to which of the people who benefited were islanders and black, and how many were in the UK and white, were discussed. Questions were raised about whether the same balance of money, to the holiday destination and to the UK, was true of holidays in other places such as the USA.

Resources

The geography schemes of work can be found at www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/schemes
The online national curriculum can be found at www.nc.uk.net